The Patek Philippe 2497: On Leap Day 2012, We Show You A Perpetual Calendar You Need To Know

You won't find the owner of a perpetual calendar any happier than you will today, February 29th. You see, one of the coolest things about a true perpetual calendar is that it automatically knows and adjusts for leap years. Thing is, they don't come around too often, so every February 29th, people that are lucky enough to own a perpetual calendar go a little nutty and start showing complete strangers their watches on the streets.

So, on this leap day, we thought we'd show you a famous perpetual calendar that you should know about. It is, of course, from Patek Philippe, and its reference is the 2497. It is a traditional manually wound perpetual calendar and it was launched in 1951. The 2497 was introduced alongside the 2438-1, which was the same watch with a waterproof case and though it was produced for over ten years, only 179 examples were made in total, of both references.

The 2497 is traditionally divided into two series, differentiated by their dials. Series one is as above on Ben's wrist with alternating dots and arabic numerals and feuille hands, while series two is as seen here with all applied hash markers and dauphine hands.

You won't find the owner of a perpetual calendar any happier than you will today, February 29th. You see, one of the coolest things about a true perpetual calendar is that it automatically knows and adjusts for leap years. Thing is, they don't come around too often, so every February 29th, people that are lucky enough to own a perpetual calendar go a little nutty and start showing complete strangers their watches on the streets.

So, on this leap day, we thought we'd show you a famous perpetual calendar that you should know about. It is, of course, from Patek Philippe, and its reference is the 2497. It is a traditional manually wound perpetual calendar and it was launched in 1951. The 2497 was introduced alongside the 2438-1, which was the same watch with a waterproof case and though it was produced for over ten years, only 179 examples were made in total, of both references.

The 2497 is traditionally divided into two series, differentiated by their dials. Series one is as above on Ben's wrist with alternating dots and arabic numerals and feuille hands, while series two is as seen here with all applied hash markers and dauphine hands.